The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

A study...performed by the A. C. Nielsen Co. found that 34 million people watched one of the top 10 tele-evangelists during the month studied.

Washington Post 5 Feb. 1986, section C, p. 11

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart smugly cast stones at adulterous PTL (Praise the Lord) head Jim Bakker--until his own voyeuristic trysts with a New Orleans hooker came to light in 1988.

Life Fall 1989, p. 142

teraflop (Science and Technology) see megaflop

Tessa acronym Also written TESSA (Business World)

Short for tax exempt special savings account, a special type of savings account for those who are exempt from income tax in the UK, from which tax on the interest earned is not deducted at source.

Etymology: The initial letters of Tax Exempt Special Savings Account.

History and Usage: The Tessa was announced as a 'wholly new tax incentive' by the then Chancellor John Major in the April 1990 budget; the accounts themselves were not to be operational until January 1991. Until that time, all savers making use of banks

and building societies in the UK (including, for example, children and pensioners) were paying tax at source on the interest on their savings, whether or not they were in fact

liable to income tax. The Tessa scheme allows the holder of one of these special accounts to earn tax-free interest on savings

up to a total of œ9,000 accumulated over five years. Almost immediately after the Chancellor's announcement, the accounts became known by the pronounceable acronym Tessa, which was often treated in advertising as though it were a girl's name. No doubt

the full name had been chosen with this in mind (the s of special, for example, was essential to avoid the pronunciation /--/, so the less-than-essential word special was included).

You may already be able to find TESSA-style accounts on the market, even though TESSAs won't officially start until January 1991.

Which? May 1990, p. 249

The first Tessa--or Tax Exempt Special Savings Account--to be launched since the Chancellor introduced them in the Budget, it offers 13 per cent tax-free for

5.5 years.

Guardian 9 June 1990, p. 12

test-tube baby

(Health and Fitness) (Science and Technology) see IVF

20.4 Thatcher...

Thatcher noun (Politics)

The name of Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister 1979-90, used in Thatcher's Britain to summarize the effects of her policies, and as the basis for derivatives such as Thatcherism, Thatcherite, etc.

Etymology: The surname of one of Britain's longest-serving Prime Ministers.

History and Usage: Thatcherism and Thatcherite (a noun or adjective) both date from the second half of the seventies, when Mrs Thatcher was rising through the ranks of Tory MPs and her policies were becoming influential. At the end of the seventies another adjective, Thatcheresque, was coined: this essentially means 'akin to Mrs Thatcher or her policies, Thatcher-like', but has been used particularly in relation to public spending cuts and unwavering resolve in carrying out a policy. Within two years of the start of Mrs Thatcher's administration, journalists started to use the term Thatcher's Britain as a shorthand for British society as it was supposedly affected by Mrs Thatcher's policies; although some uses were positive, the emphasis tended to be on the economic effects or on the social divisions which Conservative policies of the past decade were seen to have

produced. Providing a positive counterbalance to all this, an admirer or devotee of Mrs Thatcher is called a Thatcherphile.

When one of them said 'make sure you tell them what Thatcher's Britain has done to young people,' I agreed with that young person wholeheartedly.

Guardian Weekly 5 June 1988, p. 2

Pauling manifested a quite unnerving certitude and Thatcheresque disregard for even the remotest possibility that he might be wrong.

New Scientist 9 Dec. 1989, p. 55

Christopher Hogwood and...Barry Tuckwell are some of the weltklasse artists converging on a corner of England

that looks, unfortunately, forever Thatcher.

20/20 July 1990, p. 99

Because of the Thatchers...a Chinese couple has already been to look round, and an American Thatcherphile has booked a visit.

Daily Telegraph 18 Dec. 1990, p. 15

theme park

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure)

An amusement park organized on a particular theme or based on a unifying idea, with each attraction linked in some way to the theme.

Etymology: Formed by compounding: a park organized round a theme.

History and Usage: The first theme parks were modelled on the American Disneyland in the sixties. During the late sixties and seventies, several such parks were set up outside the US, but it was not until the late seventies and early eighties that the leisure industry took up the idea in a big way in the UK and started to apply it in other contexts. In the mid eighties, for

example, the principle was applied to catering outlets in the UK, resulting in the theme pub and theme restaurant, in which each aspect of design and atmosphere was related to a particular unifying theme. Theme parks came in for some criticism from environmentalists in the late eighties, since they take up large tracts of countryside and are felt by some to be an eyesore.

Grand Metropolitan's Host Group...is to spend well over œ100m over the next three years on converting its outlets to a wide range of theme pubs.

The Times 4 Nov. 1983, p. 17

Local conservationists are even more horrified by a new proposal --including a Disney-style theme park --covering 1,000 acres.

Holiday Which? Sept. 1989, p. 176

The long-awaited plan is the product of months of work by Disney 'imagineers', who conjured up Port Disney, a complex of waterfront dining, a marina, a theme park that explores the 'mysteries of the sea', and steel

cages under water where tourists can swim with sharks.

San Jose Mercury 1 Aug. 1990, section B, p. 8

theory of everything

(Science and Technology) see superstring

Third Ager

(People and Society) see woopie

thirtysomething

noun and adjective (Lifestyle and Leisure)

noun: An indeterminate age between thirty and forty; a person of this age, especially a boomer who reached this age during the eighties.

adjective: Of or belonging to such a person or the group as a whole; characteristic of baby boomers and their lifestyle in the eighties.

Etymology: The form -something could always be added to a number such as twenty, thirty, forty, etc. to indicate uncertainty as to the precise age of a person (or indeed the precise number of something else), so the word thirtysomething

had existed for some time, used when the context demanded; what brought it into public focus and led to its being used widely to refer to the boomer generation was a popular US television

series called Thirtysomething (also shown outside the US), which from 1987 recounted the ups and downs and family lives of a group of boomers who had reached their thirties in the eighties.

History and Usage: The success of the television series Thirtysomething can in part be attributed to the fact that a large proportion of its viewing public was able to identify directly with the characters; it also came at a time when the trend analysts and marketers in the US had been focusing their

efforts on meeting the demands of this very group. The word very quickly came to be used as a noun and adjective not directly alluding to the programme, but to the whole socio-economic grouping; within months this also gave rise to an explosion of other uses of -something to refer to other groups belonging to a different generation (twentysomething, fortysomething, etc.: see the examples below). The fashion for such formations continued into the early nineties.

At least 83 of the 121 films that leading distributors are opening in the New York area promise to be intellectually respectable enough for bright fortysomethings.

Newsday 11 Sept. 1988, section 2, p. 3

This comic strip collection chronicles the demands of a 'thirtysomething' career woman.

Publishers Weekly 11 Aug. 1989, p. 373

Are you ready for seventysomething rock? John Lee Hooker (b. Clarkesdale, Mississippi in 1917) is the most

thoroughly unreconstructed Delta bluesman still practising.

Q Dec. 1989, p. 127

Rosen was a lawyer from the 'Thirtysomething' crowd:...the kind of early 1970s rabble-rouser embarrassed to tell his Swarthmore class reunion he now made millions sniffing out tax loopholes for corporate takeovers.

Bryan Burrough & John Helyar Barbarians at the Gate (1990), p. 406

thrash noun (Music) (Youth Culture)

A style of rock music (also known more fully as thrash metal) which includes elements of heavy metal combined with the violence and spirit of punk rock.

Etymology: A development of thrash in the sense of 'a short, energetic (and usually fast and loud) passage of popular music

or jazz', which developed in spoken use among jazz musicians and was itself first recorded in print in the sixties.

History and Usage: Thrash, which often features images of horror and violence expressed in the harsh style of heavy metal, developed out of the more shocking aspects of punk rock in the early eighties. The emphasis on morbid themes led to the alternative name death metal, while its relentlessly fast rhythms gave rise to a third name for essentially the same style of music, speed metal. Thrash is often used attributively, in thrash band, etc. This style of rock enjoyed a vogue in the

closing years of the eighties, but by 1990 was already beginning to wane in popularity.

Avoiding solo virtuosity and theatrical excesses, the new bands deliver a buzzsaw thrash that is as hard, fast and loud as possible...The success of the likes of Metallica and Anthrax suggests that thrash metal is about to find itself in a conundrum, coping with commercial success born from a noise designed to outrage.

Guardian 20 Mar. 1987, p. 19

Totally happening Melbourne based glam thrash all-girl rock n roll phenomenon searching for wild drummer...Come on girls! Grab this chance.

Time Off (Brisbane) 19 Feb. 1988, p. 15

20.5 tight building syndrome...

tight building syndrome

(Health and Fitness) see sick building

timeframe noun Also written time frame

In US English: a period of time, an approximate time (originally a limited period during which something could be achieved).

Etymology: Formed by compounding; in the original meaning, there was a sense of constraints forming a frame round the time during which something could be done.

History and Usage: The term timeframe was originally used in the sixties, with very specific reference to a period of time on which definite starting and finishing constraints had been set, for example the schedule within which certain work was to be achieved. By the eighties, though, it had become a fashionable synonym for 'period' in general and started to spread outside US English. Thus a shipbuilder interviewed in a television documentary who said 'We built this ship in the 1976-7 timeframe' meant not that the ship had to be built to that schedule but that it was built in about 1976 or 1977. The result is that the word has changed its meaning from a very specific to an approximate period.

Hubbard told us the MSO's plans will not impact his intention to launch his service in the 1991-93 timeframe.

Satellite News 12 Feb. 1990, p. 3

Timeline see -line

Tinkie (People and Society) see DINK

20.6 TOE...

TOE	(Science and Technology) see superstring
tonepad	noun Also written tone pad (Science and Technology)

An electronic device similar in size and shape to the remote control handset of a television set and used for the transfer of data to a central computer, often over a telephone line.

Etymology: Formed by compounding: a box the size of a pad of paper, used to transmit data by means of electronic tones.

Unlike its competitors, the TSB Speedlink requires only a tonepad...and an ordinary telephone. After punching out a code number similar to those used in automated teller machines and the account number given on the customer's cheque book, he or she simply tells the voice-activated computer which services are required.

Daily Telegraph 15 Apr. 1987, p. 27

Until payphones are converted, they allow anyone with a readily available gadget called a 'tone pad' to make

free calls of unlimited duration anywhere in the world.

New Scientist 9 June 1990, p. 27

tossing (People and Society) see out

total body scanner

(Health and Fitness) see body-scanner

totally (Youth Culture) see awesome, tubular, and Valspeak

touchpad, touch-tablet

(Science and Technology) see tablet

toyboy noun (People and Society)

In British media slang, an attractive young man who is 'kept' as

a lover by an older person.

Etymology: Formed by compounding, taking advantage of the rhyming syllables: a boy who is the plaything or toy of an older partner.

History and Usage: The concept of the toyboy--socially the male equivalent of the bimbo--arose in the early eighties and soon became established as a regular feature of the language of the tabloids. Normally the toyboy is the younger lover of a mature woman, but the word has also been applied to gay relationships; often it is used attributively, with the implication that the

person being described is young and attractive. The term has even begun to generate variations: for example, the rock star Madonna was punningly described as the boy toy because of the motto on her belt-buckle and the overtly sexy image that she cultivated, and this was later applied in a transferred sense to other female stars in the same mould.

At 48 she is like a teenage girl again--raving it up with four different lovers including a toyboy of 27!

News of the World 15 Nov. 1987, p. 32

Rock's richest pop-tart [Madonna], the Boy Toy who made lingerie-and-crucifixes fashionable.

Life Fall 1989, p. 84

Olivia...has been wearing out her toy boy hubby! At 31, Macho Matt Lattanzi is 11 years younger than his famous wife.

People 11 Mar. 1990, p. 3

20.7 train surfing...

train surfing

(Youth Culture) see surf

triple A noun (War and Weaponry)

In military jargon: anti-aircraft artillery.

Etymology: A form representing the way in which many people would say AAA, itself the initial letters of Anti-Aircraft Artillery.

History and Usage: In the form AA or AAA, the abbreviation has been in use since the First World War among the military. What brought it into public focus in particular was its use by

journalists reporting the Iraqi response to allied air attacks

on Baghdad and other Iraqi cities during the Gulf War of 1991. It seems it was only in newspaper reporting of the wars of the previous decade that the form triple A started to be written down rather than being a way of speaking AAA.

There was an awful lot of triple-A (antiaircraft artillery) in the area and that was a surprise.

Christian Science Monitor 8 Dec. 1983, p. 52

Viewers heard debriefing pilots say triple A, or A.A.A....in reference to cannons and machine guns but not surface-to-air missiles.

New York Times Magazine 3 Feb. 1991, p. 8

triple witching hour

noun (Business World)

Colloquially, the unpredictable final hour of trading on the US stock exchange before three different kinds of options simultaneously expire.

Etymology: The witching hour is traditionally midnight, a time when the witches are supposed to come out and anything can happen; the triple witching hour is so called because the market can easily be thrown into turmoil (especially by computer-driven changes) when options are all expiring at once, and anything could happen to the Dow-Jones index.

History and Usage: The term has been in use among traders on Wall Street since at least the sixties, but was not much heard outside their jargon until the arbs stared to exploit the gaps